Making life a better place, one day at a time

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Today’s appointment at the allergist’s office was just like last week’s appointment. It involved being pricked all over my back with various samples of allergens. Then the nurse set the timer to fifteen minutes. Last week, I only had a couple of small allergic reactions, but today was different. Within a minute, I could feel my back becoming incredibly itchy. The nurse returned to the room to check on me and got started right away with taking notes and measurements of the red areas. Just as she was finishing up, the timer dinged. I was glad that she didn’t wait the full fifteen minutes before starting the process of noting the allergic reactions on my back, because she would have come in to find me scratching like crazy.

When I got home, I wanted Sean to take a look at my back. He was not interested one bit.

“You’re not even looking,” I said. “See how bad my allergic reaction was?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m hungry and I want to go to lunch. I kind of don’t want to ruin my appetite.”

Some husband. Now I know where he draws the line.

Anyway, I knit a few more rows on the orange sock today. I thought about taking a photo of that, but then I thought you would be more interested in seeing a photo of why Sean didn’t want to ruin his appetite, instead.

Mmmm… Sean had the chirashi bowl.

Luckily, I am not allergic to raw fish.

Salmon, yellowtail, and mackerel sashimi. It helps that we are on the half marathon training plan.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that Sean and I are now back on the half marathon training plan. The schedule called for a 4-mile run today. So after breakfast this morning, we headed out for our run. One and .62 miles into it (according to my Garmin wristwatch), the arches of my feet ached and I was thirsty and tired. I realized that I hadn’t had enough to drink that morning. Also, I’d chosen to wear a new pair of compression socks, and they were hurting rather than helping me. I stopped running, and Sean and I walked the rest of the way home.

Since I had another appointment for allergy testing on Monday morning in Oxnard, today’s schedule also called for me and Sean to drive down to Ventura. After we walked back home, we packed up our stuff and started the 150-mile drive from Morro Bay to Ventura. We stopped at Los Olivos for lunch. I made sure to drink a lot of water and iced tea on the drive down, because I was determined to get my 4 miles in today and stick to the training schedule.

We didn’t get back to Ventura until nearly 5 PM, so we didn’t start our run until after 6 PM. And rather than count this morning’s 1.62 miles, I stuck to 4 miles this evening, which explains why I’m late posting today’s entry and why I am going to be so sore tomorrow.

The morning started out nice and sunny. Somewhere along the day, though, those gray clouds crept in, resulting in an overcast afternoon and me wanting to start a new project and not knowing where to start. I looked at my fabric stash and paged through my quilting books and thought about half a dozen quilt top designs I could sew. I looked at my yarn stash and flipped through back issues of crocheting magazines and thought about half a dozen things that I could crochet. In the end, I felt so overwhelmed by all of my possible choices that I just lay on the carpeted floor and stared at the ceiling. And then I thought about sewing a large, patchwork pillowcase cover for the floor pillow.

I ended up not starting a new project. I picked up the sock and knit a few more rows. I made a deal with myself to at least finish turning the heel before considering a new project.

I started knitting the second orange sock, but my crafter’s ADD is starting to kick in. There’s a part of me that wants to start a multi-colored patchwork quilt, and another part of me that wants to start crocheting a granny squares afghan. So glad it’s the start of another three-day weekend.

The other night I was in the kitchen and Sean was in the living room, browsing the internet on his laptop. He made a comment about checking out the day’s blog post. And then I heard him say, “Aw, not this same sock again!”

He used his “I’m just teasing you” voice, but I think there was some truth behind his “just kidding” dismay of seeing the orange sock again. Because I was getting kind of sick of seeing the same sock every day, too. So even though last night I started knitting the second sock to the pair, I decided not to take a photo of that for today’s blog entry. Instead, this evening I took a photo of what my pumpkin seedlings look like now. They’re the ones I wrote about in this post. Halloween is still a few months away, but I think we’re on track for some nice fat orange pumpkins by then.

I just noticed that my little blue superhero guy has a visible outie bellybutton.

I finished this orange sock that I’d been knitting all week. The yarn is Lion Brand Sock-Ease in Red Hots, and I wrote about obtaining the yarn in this post. As you can see from the photos in that entry, dye lots make a difference.

An even better angle to capture Mr. Superhero’s scowl. Oh, and here’s the sock.

I’m knitting this sock for my cousin who sent me an outline of her foot, so I’m basing the measurements on a cardboard cutout and hoping it will all be good.

I got to work this morning after my three-day weekend and learned that one of my patients– a very young man new to prison– made a serious suicide attempt last night. The news saddened and troubled me all day. Part of me would like to share details of what happened, but I also want to respect his privacy. So this is going to be a short entry, and I’m going to see about finishing this sock.